Critical Policy Changes or Unique PV Projects
===========================================================
San Diego leads U.S. in solar power cities
SAN DIEGO – San Diego led the U.S. in installed solar energy capacity last year and ranked second in solar per capita, according to a report released Tuesday by the Environment California Research & Policy Center.
San Diego surpassed Los Angeles to take over the top spot for total capacity and trailed only Honolulu in the per capita rankings.
“The city is setting a blazing example by investing in solar power to create clean air, local green jobs and a brighter future for all,” said Michelle Kinman, of the Environment California Research & Policy Center.
“The sky’s the limit when it comes to putting San Diego’s clean and abundant sunshine to work as long as city leaders continue to embrace forward- thinking solar policies,” she said.
In terms of total installed capacity, Los Angeles fell to the second position in the rankings, followed by Honolulu, San Jose and Phoenix. Colder- climate cities Indianapolis and New York ranked sixth and seventh.
In the per capita tally, San Diego was followed by San Jose, Indianapolis and Albuquerque.
According to Environment California, San Diego’s solar capacity increased 60 percent last year to 303 megawatts.
“San Diego is setting the standard for other cities across the country when it comes to protecting our environment and creating a cleaner future,” Mayor Kevin Faulconer said. “This new ranking is a testament to the many San Diego residents and businesses harnessing our natural resources as we march toward our goal of using 100 percent renewable energy throughout the city.”
The top 20 cities in the rankings received as much power from solar in 2016 as the entire country did in 2010, according to the report.
==================================================================
Installing Solar Panels At City Of San Diego Properties Could Save $22M
Wednesday, October 21, 2015; A plan to install solar power panels at 25 city-owned properties over the next 20 years received a tentative green light today from the San Diego City Council's Infrastructure Committee.
A city staff report said the sites could be used for nine rooftop solar systems and 19 parking lot canopy arrays.
Among the proposed locations are seven police stations, four libraries, the City Administration Building and surrounding structures, the Mission Trails Regional Park Visitors Center parking lot, and the Inspiration Point parking lot in Balboa Park.
Under terms of the deal, which will now go before the full City Council for approval, SunEdison Government Solutions LLC will install, operate, own and maintain the solar photovoltaic systems over two decades. The city will buy the power supplied by the systems from SunEdison, replacing electricity that otherwise would have been purchased from San Diego Gas & Electric.
City officials estimated the cost of purchasing power for the 25 facilities from SDG&E over the next 20 years would be $48 million, compared to a $26 million price tag for solar from SunEdison. The total savings would be $22 million, ranging from a projected $500,000 in the first year of operation to more than $1.7 million annually by the end of the term, according to the staff report.
"This is about using our infrastructure to its fullest potential and using community buildings to save our community money," Mayor Kevin Faulconer said at a news conference before the committee meeting.
"Libraries and recreation centers are hubs for community engagement, and now they will be hubs for green energy," he said.
Committee Chairman Mark Kersey said the savings projections are "fairly conservative," with costs of traditional energy sources expected to climb in the future.
Mario Sierra, director of the city's Environmental Services Department, said construction could begin around March or April next year and be completed by August.
The project could become more ambitious in the future. City staff said in the report that 40 other municipal properties were identified as good candidates for solar systems.
=======================================================
San Diego, L.A., Lead Solar Ranking (San Diego)
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (March 30, 2015) – The solar panel field at Alpine elementary School was put in with the hopes of larger savings than they are realizing under a new rate structure. — John Gibbins
San Diego held on to its near-top ranking for rooftop solar energy capabilities in a second annual survey of U.S. cities, even as local regulations are being revised to reduce the payback from solar on utility bills.
A survey of major U.S. cities released Friday by the nonprofit Environment California Research & Policy Center placed San Diego in second place for its solar-energy capabilities at the close of 2014.
The growth of solar power among San Diego households, businesses and agencies also outpaced Los Angeles, the nation’s leader in local solar power. Moving up in the rankings this year were cities not generally associated with sunny weather, such as Indianapolis, Chicago and Newark.
“People look at the United States and they look at San Diego and say, ‘Oh, obviously it should be a leader in solar. It’s so sunny,’” said Dan Jacobson, a program manager at Sacramento-based Environment California. “But that’s such a small part of the story. The reason San Diego is in such good shape for solar is that you’ve done such a good job of making it financially attractive.”
Notable innovations at play in San Diego include special solar incentives for multi-family affordable housing complexes, and loans for installing home solar energy systems that can be paid back through property tax assessments. The city and local utility are known for efficiency when it comes to permits and connecting solar panels to the grid.
On a per capita basis, San Diego’s solar capabilities were ranked No. 4 behind No.1 Honolulu, No. 2 Indianapolis.
San Diego nearly tied No. 3 San Jose. Honolulu had more than twice as much solar power per person as the runner-up.
As in past years, the solar survey highlighted successful and innovative approaches to boosting solar energy as an alternative to fossil fuels. On a new note, the report criticized attempts by utilities in several states to apply new fees on solar customers and attacks against bill credits for solar energy that help pay for solar panels and installation costs.
“Utilities do not like distributed generation — solar on roofs — because it messes with their business model,” Jacobson said. “We’ve seen time and again this exact play that they’re doing: increasing fees, try to do away with net metering. All of this makes it harder for homeowners, housing associations or business to put the solar on the roof.”
California’s major investor-owned utilities, including San Diego Gas & Electric, say current billing practices and credits for solar energy allow solar customers to unfairly duck costs for maintaining the grid that they too rely on — leaving other customers to pick up the tab.
Regulators are expected to approve a new policy by the end of the year.
The utility wants to overhaul its “net metering” system that currently provide credit at full retail prices for excess electricity that solar customers send to the grid.
Clean-energy advocates fear the changes will slow down the rooftop solar revolution.
San Diego City Council member Todd Gloria and Mayor Kevin Faulconer celebrated the city’s solar ranking at an affordable housing complex in North Park, where a shared solar panel system was installed by Everyday Energy in 2012.
The survey by Environment California looked mainly at small- and medium-scale solar energy systems mounted on rooftops and above parking lots within city limits.
When it comes to big solar arrays in more remote locations, California recently became the first U.S. state to get 5 percent of its utility-scale electricity from the sun. That announcement this week from the U.S. Energy Information Administration noted that California is producing more utility-scale solar power than all other states combined.
Indianapolis was propelled to the No. 2 solar per-capita ranking with the construction of several mid-sized commercial solar projects, including 76,000 new solar panels at the Indianapolis airport.
Environment California obtained solar statistics from 64 major U.S. cities, starting with the 50 most populated cities and adding cities from smaller states.
© Copyright 2015 The San Diego Union-Tribune, LLC. An MLIM LLC Company. All rights reserved.
Solar Gold Rush in San Diego: Rules for Solar Changing (San Diego)
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (January 21, 2015) – The rules of solar are changing in California, and property owners that wait to go solar in the future will not receive the favorable conditions of today. The billing arrangement that provides solar owners full retail credit for the energy they put on the grid, called net energy metering, is ending. Industry experts suggest that homes and businesses that wait until the peak summer months to install a solar power system will likely miss their chance.
“The upcoming changes for solar producers will undoubtedly create an unprecedented demand,” said Daniel Sullivan, founder and president of locally-based Sullivan Solar Power, whose clientele includes UC San Diego, the Port of San Diego and San Diego State University. “Property owners that wait until June to sign up to go solar may miss their chance to receive the full retail credit that current solar producers receive.”
Net energy metering will end once a certain amount of solar is installed in each utility territory, and San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) will be the first utility to reach its cap. Anyone that installs solar before the cap is hit will receive full retail credit for energy they produce, and will be grandfathered in for 20-years. Once net metering ends, new homes and businesses that install solar will receive less credit for the energy they produce.
“The period for going solar under the current net metering rules could end for SDG&E customers by December or even earlier, depending on how many people install solar this year,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA).
In order for property owners to get grandfathered in to current rules, the projects must be installed. A signed contract will not reserve a property’s space in the queue. Under normal market conditions, it takes an average of 120 days for a project to be delivered from the time paperwork is signed to installation completion. The solar industry is anticipating a bottleneck for installations, city permitting, and utility inspections.
“We are informing all San Diego property owners that are interested in going solar that they need to sign up by May in order to receive the current favorable rules and grandfathering protections,” said Sullivan, who has been providing solar to the region for a decade, “September is when there’s the greatest demand for solar, but it is unlikely that people who wait until then will be installed before the rules change.”
In addition to the local changes, solar policy is going to become less favorable on a national level as well. The tax credit, which covers 30 percent of a solar project, is currently the largest incentive available for property owners that invest in solar. The federal tax credit for solar is ending in 2016 for residential properties, and will be reduced to 10 percent for commercial property owners.
“Given changes that will be coming next year and favorable conditions right now, there has never been a better time to go solar,” said Del Chiaro.
About Sullivan Solar Power
Sullivan Solar Power is a turnkey solar system provider that delivers solar electric projects from concept to completion. The company has installed more than 25,000,000-watts of solar power ranging from small-scale residential to large-scale commercial and municipal systems. Sullivan Solar Power is headquartered in San Diego, Calif. and owned and operated by Daniel Sullivan. Sullivan Solar Power has a longstanding A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau, with no complaints filed since the business began. The firm has been named one of the fastest growing energy companies in the nation by Inc. Magazine for three consecutive years and services all of Southern California. Regardless of project size and scope, Sullivan is committed to delivering the best products and the most qualified professionals to its customers. Visit http://www.sullivansolarpower.com for more information.
=======================================================
Navy inks solar deal on 6,000 homes (San Diego)
The nation’s largest solar provider and the U.S. Navy announced a deal Wednesday that will equip nearly 6,000 homes in the San Diego area with rooftop solar energy systems.
Navy and Marine Corps housing in 27 neighborhoods from Imperial Beach to Vista will receive rooftop solar energy systems under the agreement brokered between SolarCity of San Mateo and Lincoln Military Housing, a company based in Dallas that manages military family housing through a public-private partnership with the Navy.
SolarCity will design, install and maintain the tiny rooftop power plants. In return, a public-private partnership has agreed to purchase solar electricity at a price below local utility rates. Officials declined to provide pricing details... See More Here
=======================================================
 |
| Source: SEIA |
How SDG&E's rate reform will impact solar, low-income consumers (San Diego)
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has proposed changes to its rate structure it says will ensure customers are equitably paying to maintain the grid, and in the process has caused an uproar among consumer advocates and environmentalists. They argue the proposal is an attack on rooftop solar that will also raise bills for low-income customers.
To understand the changes, utility officials say you have to look back to the California energy crisis in 2000. The legislature, to protect ratepayers, put a four-tiered system in place—and froze rates for the bottom two tiers.
"The initial intent was to protect ratepayers from what appeared to be a very unstable economic situation," said SDG&E communications manager Stephanie Donovan. "With all the market manipulation, rates were going through the roof."See More Here
=======================================================
San Francisco may consider mandatory solar panels (San Francisco)
A San Francisco supervisor wants to require new buildings in the city to have solar panels, gardens or both on their roofs, a newspaper reported.
Supervisor David Chiu plans to introduce a resolution next week that would mandate the green additions, though he said he understands they won't always be feasible, the San Francisco Chronicle reported (http://bit.ly/1sXjXHo ).
Some towers going up downtown have limited roof space, and some single-family homes are not well-suited for solar panels.See More Here
=======================================================
Some incentives for solar power expire, others changing (San Diego)
The California Solar Initiative ran out of funds for residential solar installations earlier this year, eliminating one way homeowners had been able to offset an installation's cost.
But according to some local solar installation companies and the Center for Sustainable Energy, which administered the CSI program, the sunset on the rebate program doesn't appear to pose the same threat to the industry it might have had it gone away just a couple of years ago. The industry had to begin preparing for the program to end back in 2013, when it was due to run out of cash. But state legislators managed to allocate an additional $5 million to residential solar projects.See More Here
Time running out for rooftop solar benefit (San Diego)
The sun is setting steadily on California's super-incentive for rooftop solar.
Customers of San Diego Gas & Electric have reached the half-way point toward a cumulative cap on a program known as net energy metering, the utility reported on its website.
Under net metering, rooftop solar customers of California's major investor-owned utilities are credited for excess electricity at the full retail rate. The arrangement effectively winds a household electric meter backwards, allowing some customers to pay next to nothing on electricity bills or even earn some money after a 12-month period. See More Here
=======================================================
Battery to Power 2.5K Homes Installed at UCSD 2015, Largest in US (San Diego)
A battery system with enough capacity to power about 2,500 homes will be installed at UC San Diego next year, the school announced Monday.
Energy from the system, which UCSD officials say will be one of the largest in the United States, will be connected into the school’s own power grid. The university generates 92 percent of the electricity used on campus.
“UC San Diego is committed to practices that promote sustainability and innovation, not just on our campus, but in our community and our world,” said Gary Matthews, the vice chancellor for resource management and planning. “Energy storage has the potential to transform the global energy landscape. It can help make renewable energy sources more reliable and is critical to a resilient, efficient, clean and cost-effective grid.” See More Here
=======================================================
Solar incentives reward west-facing panels (CA statewide)
California is encouraging home builders that install rooftop solar energy systems to tilt hose panels westward toward the setting sun.
The goal is to capture more renewable energy in the waning hours of the day, when electricity demands are often highest, explained David Hochschild, a member of the California Energy Commission who specializes in renewable energy. The goal is to avoid more of the air pollution that comes from gas-fired generators at conventional power plants.
In the northern hemisphere, rooftop panels typically have been oriented toward the south to capture as much sunlight as possible throughout the day. See More Here
=======================================================
San Diego Airport Is First in World to Be Certified LEED Platinum (San Diego)
San Diego International Airport became the first in the world to be awarded LEED Platinum — the highest environmental certification possible — for its new energy-efficient green terminal.
Sustainable features of the new terminal include a 3.3-megawatt solar array, low-flow water fixtures, drought-tolerant landscaping, energy-efficient or natural lighting, reflective roofs, storm drainage management and non-toxic interior construction materials and paints. Read More Here